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For this episode, I hit the trails with The Cleveland Hiking Club to discover what drives this all-volunteer-run organization with over 1,200 members. The answer? Cool people who are passionate about encouraging and promoting outdoor recreation and making it accessible to anyone who wants to join in. In my interview with the club's Community Engagement Coordinator, Kara Girvin, and David Schiraldi of the Pathfinder Committee, we speak about finding adventure and friendship on the trails and how hiking and spending time outdoors benefits us mentally and physically. Club members lead hikes year-round every day for all levels of hikers. You will find them in the Metroparks, in cities, in our national park, and even in other countries. I recently joined a club excursion to the New River Gorge National Park with 50 other hikers. There were ten hikes over a three-day weekend, and towards the end of this episode, you will hear from some of the members I met on the trail. Join us, experience a hike or two, and check out this welcoming, vibrant community. Anyone 18 and older can hike with the Cleveland Hiking Club. To qualify as a member, one must complete six hikes a year and pay a small fee. Once a member, all miles are logged, and milestones are celebrated. Some members have hiked over 50,000 miles with the club, demonstrating the enduring power of walking together in nature.

Resources:
About the Cleveland Hiking Club
Join the Cleveland Hiking Club
Hiking Schedule

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Holden Forest & Gardens is seeding Ohio's forested future through the Holden Seed Bank at the Holden Arboretum, which will soon celebrate its first anniversary. In this episode, we speak with Seed Bank Manager Kim Lessman about how this "restoration" seed bank works, how she became its manager, and how her work forms the core of new climate-fighting reforestation efforts across the region by eliminating a bottleneck in local tree planting efforts - the need for seeds. The Holden Seed Bank collects and processes seeds from native "workhorse" tree species like hickories, oaks, and hemlocks, which local nurseries grow into seedlings to support regional restoration projects and tree planting efforts. The work of the Holden Seed Bank is helping build resilient, biodiverse forests that can face our changing climate by providing thousands and thousands of seeds of local ecotype collected in our region. A Celebration of Seeds event will be held on August 8 at the Cleveland Botanical Garden and feature panelists from Holden Seed Bank, Cleveland Metroparks, the Pollinator Project, and Wild Ones Greater Cleveland to celebrate its one-year anniversary. Join us for all the tree-loving details.

Guest:
Kimberly Lessman, Manager, Holden Restoration Seed Bank - klessman@holdenfg.org

Resources:
About Holden Forest & Gardens
About the Holden Seed Bank
Celebration of Seeds - August 8 at the Cleveland Botanical Garden
Visit the Cleveland Botanical Garden and the Holden Arboretum

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In this episode, we share the recording from our recent May networking event at Great Lakes Brewing Company. This event featured a discussion about greenspace with three local leaders working on expanding greenspace in our urban core and increasing access and opportunities to experience nature through outdoor recreation, especially for our historically underserved communities. Our three speakers from Cleveland Metroparks, the local nonprofit SYATT, and the Trust for Public Land speak about improving our community and environmental health by creating more access to greenspace and the collaborations that amplify their work.

At 2:18 our first speaker is Kaela Geschke, the Ohio Parks for People Program Director for the Trust for Public Land. Kell speaks about some of the projects she is working on in our region to create and protect nature-rich places and the importance of that work to the health of our community.

At 14:18, our second speaker is Kelly Coffman, a principal planner with Cleveland Metroparks. Kelly speaks about the strategic planning effort to create greenways connecting our inner city areas with our lake and other parks to increase park access. Kelly also shares the latest details on the CHEERS project, which will transform Cleveland's east side Lake Erie waterfront.

At 27:30, our third speaker is Erika Hood, the Co-Founder and Director of Equity and Engagement for SYATT (See You At The Top). This local organization provides opportunities for Black and Brown communities to explore nature and outdoor recreation. Erika shares stories about the ski and scuba outings, camping trips, and other outdoor experiences she organizes for people in Cleveland's black community and how these shared experiences are so impactful.

Speakers:
• Kelly Coffman, Principal Planner with Cleveland Metroparks.
• Kaela Geschke, Ohio Parks for People Program Director for the Trust for Public Land.
• Erika Hood, Co-Founder and Director of Equity and Engagement for SYATT

Resources:
Cuyahoga County Greenways Plan
Cleveland Metroparks active Planning & Design projects

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